Publication Date

Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 9:45pm

Ottawa – The roughly 400 members of OPSEU Local 454 Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa have ratified a new collective agreement that provides the working conditions they need to continue providing high quality service and care to children and families.

“We know what we need to do our work well and we stood firmly together to ensure that’s what we got,” says Michele Thorn, an Ottawa CAS employee and the chair of OPSEU Local 454’s bargaining team. “This wasn’t an easy round of bargaining, but I’m incredibly proud of our members because we made it a successful round of bargaining.”

The new collective agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2018, includes wage increases and a number of other items that will improve working conditions, including provisions that will prevent the employer from privatizing or contracting-out work, and that will ensure fair and reasonable workloads.

“Privatization and heavy workloads are both huge issues at Children’s Aid Societies across Ontario,” says Chrisy Tremblay, a member of the Local 454 bargaining team and the vice-chair of OPSEU’s CAS sector. “Holding strong for an agreement that address both of these issues is a huge victory for both the people who provide children’s aid services, and the children and families who depend on them.”

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says the Local 454 members deserve to feel good about what they’ve accomplished together.

“These members showed an inspiring amount of strength and solidarity to get a contract that’s good for them and good for the communities they serve,” said Thomas. “On behalf of all 155,000 members of this great union, I want to say: Congratulations.”